Field of the Invention
This invention relates broadly to shaped, self-supporting ceramic composites and to methods for producing the same. More particularly, this invention relates to shaped, self-supporting ceramic composites comprising a shaped preform infiltrated by a ceramic matrix; and to methods of making novel ceramic composites by infiltrating a shaped preform with a ceramic matrix by "growing" an oxidation reaction product from a parent metal precursor, which product embeds constituents of said preform thereby forming a composite having the geometry of said preform.